John Blake
Skills John isn't someone with extraordinary powers. He can't run faster than the speed of light, or stop a train with his bare hands. He's simply an ordinary man. But he's extraordinary in his own right. After all, he did serve on the Gotham City force, so this guy has both brains and brawn all together. John isn't someone stupid or anything of that stature. He's quite intelligent, and is often able to solve most problems in his head rather quickly, no matter the situation. He's smart also in the sense that he has his patience to help guide him, because he knows when to hold back, and when to strike. It's a valuable skill to have out in the field, as he has learned countless times. John is a fairly strong man as well, despite his slim build, and it's all due to his police training. Countless hours of exercising and working out has certainly done it's share to keep his health up. He can hold his own in a fight without much trouble, but in all honesty, that's all from his police training as well. He wouldn't be able to get anywhere all that much without it. His arms training is also, of course, a result from his police training, as is customary. So, like it was stated: John Blake isn't someone with extraordinary powers or anything of that sort. But he's a strong man in his own right. Personality John has always been a man to endure, through pain, through suffering, through the worst of times. He's seen all there is to see in the world of Gotham, and yet he knows that there are horrors which exist that he has yet to see. He's resilient, seeming to survive through the worst of situations, even the days of Gotham's downfall. But even then he fights, for he is the type of man that refuses to give up. After having lost his father to a criminal of the city, he refuses to let anything else happen to anyone else, for he doesn't want anyone else to suffer a loss like he did so many years ago. He is valiant in his acts, and if saving others means sacrifice, then he'd do it without a second thought, for he isn't afraid to die if it means doing the right thing. This quality makes him a good and fair person, and most of the time, that is how people see him. But other people sometimes see him as a bit of a hot-head, believing him to be the type of person that does whatever he wants no matter what other people say, and sometimes, that's true. But John only takes matters into his own hands if it means he's doing it for the well being of others, and once his decision is made in that kind of matter, there is rarely a man in the world who can deter him from his path of action. John is a truly good person though. He knows when to keep out of a situation if someone wishes to be left alone, and can even tell when someone might need a friend, even if it's only for a few moments. After years of putting on his own mask to hide away the pain, he has been able to see through the guise of others fairly easily. But it doesn't bother him in the least. His compassion for others is a strength, in his mind, for to John, compassion is something that can make you who you are and defy or set you apart from those around. Being compassionate, in John's opinion, can often make you the better man in any situation. Appearance John is a handsome young man with a thin yet athletic looking figure due to countless hours spent training for his duty as a Gotham City policeman. He's tall with broad shoulders, black hair, and dark brown eyes that always seem to have a serious look to them due to the amount of sadness and pain he still carries with him to this day. Having spent most of his life in Gotham city, his complexion isn't all that tan, although he isn't as pale as a ghost either. Overall, John's choice of apparel isn't anything special. Most of the time you can catch him in just jeans and a t-shirt, occasionally wearing the old black leather jacket that he's had with him for years now. He believes in comfort over the way you look, though most of the time he doesn't look all that bad with what he wears. Of course he'll wear formal clothing now and then, but most of the time it's only for formal occasions and nothing more. What most people don't really notice though is that John tends to carrier around his gun in his holster now and then mainly out of habit, strapping the weapon to his waist before leaving the house mainly just to have the feeling of safety and security that he never truly had as a child. Relationships History John never had it easy, even from the beginning. It was always one thing or another, and no matter what happened, there was always fighting to be done. Fighting to stay alive another night in Gotham, fighting for the little cash that could be earned to merely pay for the night's dinner. That's how it was in Gotham, especially in the narrows. And the narrows is exactly the place where John spent most of his childhood. But it was never safe, not with the threat of a thug or a potential mugger lurking outside the door on the streets every night. But even then, no one could ever truly be safe, no matter how hard they tried. That was the case with John's mother back then. He had only been three years old. There wasn't much left after the wreckage, but driving through downtown Gotham even during the day seemed to be the doom of most, for when the drunk driver pulled out and clipped the front of the car, there was nothing to stop it from tumbling across the road into an old abandoned apartment building. Memories are still fuzzy from that day, for all John ever truly can remember is burning flames and a hand, a single solitary hand grasping his own before the flashing lights of emergency services block out what is left. That is all that is left of his mother. Faint memories barely depicting the woman who had once cared for him even in Gotham's darkest corners, but truthfully, John doesn't even care. It is because he can hardly remember her that he doesn't, for he doesn't believe in loving someone who was never truly in your life. For the next five years John lived with his father as his only support. Before his mother's death, the man had hardly ever paid attention to John, but the responsibility of taking care of a child all on your own can change that all in an instant. Many said he became a different man after that. And he and his son became close. They bonded, and he became John's strong link to the world, a rock amidst the terror and horror that could occur on a daily basis. But, just as with his mother, even that connection couldn't be kept forever. But this time it hit him hard. This time he had memories to remember the man who had stood by him. This time it hurt. His father was gunned down as if he were just a simple animal being hunted for the sport of things, as if taking his life away was one of the simplest matters in the world. Those thugs didn't care. All they wanted was to steal and loot what they could when they could, and mugging an innocent man made no difference to them. Not even with a child standing there watching the whole time. Even to this day John can't fathom why they left him alone, why they only focused on his father and just simply...left. But it made no difference, because it couldn't change the fact his father had died. Being only eight years old at the time, he became a wreck, filled with grief at the loss of his father, the gunshots which ended his life that night always echoing through his head each and every minute of the day. After that night, John did little. He merely sat in his room in the orphanage, rarely talking to most of the boys who roomed with him. He only ever left to eat, clean himself, or use the bathroom. That was the extent of his life over the months following. But slowly, ever so slowly, he began to interact with others. Those of the orphanage always told him he would have to be strong, that he would have to get over his father's death, and in a way, he did. He put on his mask, and he jumped back into the world, made it look like the hurt had left for good, and that he was going to be alright. But that was all lie, all a part of the mask he put on everyday just to make it through another night, to see another dawn. And then Bruce Wayne was rumored to be showing his face to the public, and not just anyone, but the boys from the very home which John had been living in for the past couple years. Everyone was excited, even John. No one could believe that a billionaire would show up at the orphanage, but doubts were proven wrong when the car pulled up all on it's own. And, like the others, John was one of the first in the group to first spot the man as he stepped in through the simple swinging doors. But he was let down then, for he saw the mask. It was the mask he wore, the mask to ward of the sadness and guilt that haunted for another day, and after that, John almost felt betrayed. But his mask never came undone. It was a few weeks later that his own adoption came into play with a simple man, a man who lived in, not exactly the nicer parts of Gotham, but better, safer, than the narrows. Life went on, and so did John's. He moved on, got an education, and by the time he was ready for college, he had found his way into the Gotham Police Academy. For so long he had been inspired by the everyday heroes of their streets, and finally the decision had been made in his mind that he would do his best to help out the citizens of Gotham in any way he could, protecting them with the ranks of the officers. That dream came true, and soon John was serving alongside the heroes of the city. He had been twenty-one when he first started. Five years passed, and he was still only a beat cop on the force, a man who, despite his hot head instincts, knew how to get the job down, and how to do it right. Few knew him, and his name wasn't very well known, but all that changed the day he and his partner came across the body outside the sewers. The chain of events after that would lead him into a world unknown, and would forever change his life as well, for John was soon thrust into the side of Gotham that not many had seen in a long time. It was after he saved the Commissioner that all this had begun. The man had been fortunate enough to catch the police chief before he had drowned in never-ending waters leading from the sewer. The days following produced chaos after the attack at Gotham's stock trading center, but nobody had been prepared for the return of the Dark Knight, the Gotham legend. Nobody had been expecting the return of the Batman. But it was before this appearance that John himself went to Wayne Manor, having his own talk with Bruce and confessing that he knew of his being Batman, telling him that Gotham needed it's hero after all. After going to see Gordon in the hospital, John himself was promoted to detective, but things only seemed to get worse from there, whether he knew it or not. As Bane slowly began to rise in the criminal charts, things became worse as points in the sewers were being marked for the possibility of bombs being stored there. At first it just seemed to be a random pattern, but John deduced otherwise. But he had been to late. The fall of Gotham came as Bane introduced himself to the entirety, setting off bombs all around the city, trapping thousands of policemen beneath the streets of Gotham. Bridges leading out from the island city collapsed as well, and it was then that Gotham was truly alone. The months following were full of chaos as Bane destroyed the political order of the city, sending everything and everyone into turmoil. Panic controlled the streets, and every attempt for hope was snuffed out quickly by Bane's men. But the few policemen left in the city were the ones who were planning on escape, on a way to save the city from the nuclear bomb Bane had used as leverage against the city. John had escaped with Gordon long before, and after the three months had passed, a plan was ready to be put into play. And then Bruce returned to the city. Nobody had known where he had gone, for he had disappeared not long before the fall of Gotham had occurred. Instantly John was glad to have Batman on the team. The war began then, for with the help of Batman, the entire police force was freed from beneath Gotham's streets. The various men who had been trapped for so long took up their arms, and without hesitation the heroes of the city were once again doing their job as they moved to fight for their freedom against Bane's men. But it was soon discovered that the bomb was still set to go off, and it was then that John took up action and began to do what he had been doing for the past five years: his job, a protector of the citizens. He went to the orphanage first, getting the kids onto a school bus before he went for the neighbors, for the entire city was set to be evacuated due to the threat of the bomb, But luck ran out as they got half way across the bridge. The government barricade that had been set up due to threats from Bane during the first few days of destruction refused to allow passage for the refugees fleeing Gotham, afraid that Bane would still hold good on his threat to set the bomb off and destroy the city should anyone leave. John bravely began to step forward, not even stopping as the officers began to shoot at his feet in an attempt to get him to turn away. And so it was that they blew the bridge instead, cutting off the last route of escape for the people of Gotham. Upset at the betrayal of the officers, John soon turned his attention back to the children from the orphanage, ordering both them and his adoptive father to get on the bus in hopes that, in the last moments of the city, the kids could still have some shred of hope to hold on to. And that was when Batman appeared, towing the bomb along below him in his flying vehicle, the Bat, past Gotham city and out to see. It was from the bridge that all watched as the nuclear bomb finally exploded, Gotham very much out of harm's way. John watched with a heavy heart as the guardian of the city gave his own life for the city, and freed Gotham once again. John then resigned from the police force after that day. And so it was that John Blake, Robin John Blake, had earned the respect of the great Bat, the Dark Knight who had watched over the city for so long, for his actions in helping the city in it's darkest days. But the job couldn't be done by one man forever. That was how he found the coordinates, a simple sealed envelope with no name, placed through the mail slot of the door in his apartment, lying there the day he returned from seeing the sacrifice of one man for his city. The coordinates lead him to a mysterious place deep in the wooded areas around Gotham, and amidst the dense foliage he came across a path, which soon lead to a glorious waterfall, and past that, a hidden cave, the very cave known only to the Batman. But as John entered, he could only observe the beauty of it for a few mere seconds, admiring the work of a man whom he would most likely never see or hear from again, before he was pulled down beneath the water, disappearing into the blackness below. Pandora History